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#### Mesh COLORMAP Operator

Mesh Operator dialog box - COLORMAP operator

The Mesh COLORMAP operation applies a colored shading to the selected mesh. The colormap is shaded according to the deviations of the mesh compared to CAD using the colors defined in the Edit Dimension Color dialog box and the tolerance limits specified in the Upper tolerance and Lower tolerance boxes discussed below.

Because the Mesh colormap shows the color deviations on the Mesh object, when you apply the colormap, the software hides the CAD model. In comparison, the Pointcloud colormap colors the deviations on the CAD model, so the CAD model is not hidden. To show or hide the CAD model, click the Show CAD button () on the Graphic Items toolbar. For details, see "Graphic Items Toolbar" in the "Using Toolbars" chapter in the PC-DMIS Core documentation.

The colors used for the colormap are defined in Edit Dimension Color dialog box (Edit | Graphic Display Window | Dimension Color).

You can view the color scale from the Dimensions Color Bar by selecting View | Other Windows | Dimensions Colors.

To apply the Mesh COLORMAP operation to a Mesh:

1. Click the Color a Mesh button () on the Mesh toolbar (View | Toolbars | Mesh), or select Insert | Mesh | Colormap.

2. Update these options based on your needs:

Tolerances - Used to set the upper (plus) and lower (minus) tolerance values:

Plus - The upper tolerance value

Minus - The lower tolerance value

Use dimension color scale check box - When clicked, the color bar used for the Mesh Colormap color properties is defined by the Dimensions Color Bar. For details, see "Using the Dimensions Colors Window (Dimensions Color Bar)" in the "Using Other Windows, Editors, and Tools" chapter of the PC-DMIS Core documentation.

Edit Color Scale - When the Use dimension color scale check box is not marked, the Edit Color Scale button is enabled. When clicked, the functionality to dynamically change the color, scale and threshold of the surface and point colormap properties becomes available through the Color Scale Editor dialog box. For details, see the "Edit the Color Scale" topic.

No data color check box - When you select this option, the specified color is mapped to selected surfaces where no data is defined.

Max distance - This value only allows points that fall within the max distance to be included in the colormap. Note that if this value is too small, you may not see all the expected colored deviations. A good rule of thumb is to set this value slightly larger (10%, for example) than the largest deviation.

Thickness - This adds a thickness value to deviations on the colormap. This is useful if you want to add a material thickness to the Mesh surface model.

Create annotation points check box - Annotations are a way to display the deviation for a specific location on a surface colormap with its associated color. To create an annotation:

1. Click the Create annotation points check box to mark it. This clears the Select check box in the CAD Controls area and disables most of the options on the right side of the dialog box.

2. Select a point on the colormapped Mesh in the Graphic Display window. PC-DMIS evaluates and creates an annotation label in the same background color as the Mesh deviation point with the deviation value. The label can be moved around in the Graphic Display window as any other label.

Once created, the annotation labels remain in the same position and have the same characteristics if the measurement routine is restarted, or if PC-DMIS is restarted and the same measurement routine is reloaded.

Create MinMax annotations check box - When this check box is selected, minimum and maximum values are created in the form of annotation labels for the active Mesh Surface Colormap.

Example of Mesh Colormap with Min, Max, and various point annotation labels displayed

The minimum and maximum points are recalculated each time the measurement routine is executed.

Show, Hide, or Delete Annotation Labels

To show, hide, or delete annotation labels, right-click on a label to display the shortcut menu, and then select the appropriate option.

Delete Annotation - The selected annotation label is automatically deleted.

Show All Annotations - All annotation labels are displayed.

Hide All Annotations - All annotation labels are hidden.

Delete All Annotations - All annotation labels are automatically deleted.

Show annotation points check box - When this check box is selected, any annotation points that have been created are displayed.

3. Click Create to insert a MESH/OPER,COLORMAP command into the Edit window.

For example:

MESHCOLORMAP1=MESH/OPER,COLORMAP,PLUS TOLERANCE=0.5,MINUS TOLERANCE=-0.5,THICKNESS=0,MAX DISTANCE=1,

REFINE FACTOR=0.1,TRIANGLES=401063,VERTICES=206625,

REF,MESH1,,

Colormaps in the Report

For information on how the software shows colormaps in the report, see "Colormaps and the CadReportObject" in the "Reporting Measurement Results" chapter of the PC-DMIS Core documentation.

More:

Dimensioning Surface Profile Using the Mesh COLORMAP